Battling Macular Degeneration
by ifoundmydoctor
Norm Thurston
“I’d been noticing when I watched TV in the evening that the faces were a little distorted, like caricatures,” says Norm Thurston. “Also, I started noticing that it was getting a little bit difficult to read some of the street signs when I was driving at night.”
Norm realized it was something he should tell his eye doctor.
“I happened to mention it to her during an exam,” he recalls, “and she said, It looks like you have a touch of macular degeneration. I would like to send you to Dr. Moscoso at the Manatee Eye Clinic. That was about four years ago.”
Walter E. Moscoso, MD, is a board-certified ophthalmologist and fellowship-trained retina specialist on staff at Manatee Sarasota Eye Clinic. He notes that there are two basic types of macular degeneration: “dry” and “wet.”
“Dry macular degeneration is the most prevalent, accounting for about eighty percent of cases and involving the deterioration of macular tissue over time,” he explains.
The macula is the central area of the retina that makes it possible to distinguish fine detail. When the retinal tissue in the macula degenerates, either because the tissue itself begins to deteriorate, or because new blood vessels form beneath the tissue and threaten its integrity, it can have a significant impact on a patient’s vision.
